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For this week we recommend The Auctioneer. Adventures in the Art Trade, the memoirs of Simon de Pury, a truly unique character in the art business. With outstanding magnetism and charm he can catch everyone’s breath in an auction room and he certainly does so in his book. With a fresh sense of humour and full of juicy anecdotes his memoirs will keep you hooked until the very end. Going once, going twice … sold! “Just as William Goldman, the ultimate screenwriter, took us inside Hollywood, Simon de Pury, the ultimate art player, will take us inside an even more secretive business, whose staggering prices, famous collectors, and high crimes are front page news almost every day. The former Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, the former owner of Sotheby’s rival Phillips de Pury, and currently a London-based dealer and advisor to great collectors around the world, Simon has one of the highest profiles of any non-artist in the art world. Even though he has an ancient title and the aura of an elegant Swiss banker, Simon is famous as an iconoclast and is known as ‘The Mick Jagger of Auctions’ for his showmanship and exuberance. His whole life in art has been devoted to bringing art to the public and to the juxtaposition of high and low. Movie stars, musicians, and athletes compete with hedge funders and billionaires for the great art, and Simon is their pied piper; he wants to turn the world onto art and this book will be his message”(2016, St. Martin’s Press)

To watch the video “New Models in Collaboration: The Gallery and the Auction House Relationship” from the Talking Galleries Barcelona Symposium 2017 where Simon de Pury participated as speaker you can follow this link: https://www.talkinggalleries.com/project/video-recordings-barcelona-symposium-2017/